Allahabad High Court urges State to set up more NIA courts, appoint Public Prosecutors to such courts

The Allahabad High Court recently asked the State government to consider issuing notification for setting up more Special Courts in Uttar Pradesh to expedite the proceedings of scheduled offences under the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act [Lakhan @ Kunjan vs State of UP]..The division bench of Justice Attau Rahman Masoodi and Justice Ajai Kumar Srivastava also directed the State to appoint Public Prosecutors to conduct the cases before the Special Courts and issue directives for prompt investigation.“We also deem it appropriate that the Director, Judicial Training & Research Institute (JTRI) shall provide training to the Judicial Officers working in all the Special Courts to achieve the distinctive objects of the relevant Acts, in its right perspective including NIA,” the Court ordered further..The directions were passed while hearing a criminal appeal in which a legal question had cropped up regarding the jurisdiction of the NIA Courts.The issue before the Court was whether only the cases investigated by the NIA can be tried before NIA courts or all the offences which are scheduled under the NIA Act can be tried by such courts.The Court observed that while the designated Court alone is empowered to try all such scheduled offences investigated by the NIA, the Special Court’s jurisdiction in respect of the offences probed by NIA in association with the State or by the State government itself is not ousted. “The mechanism of investigation under the Act is threefold – (a) offences investigated by the NIA on being notified by the Central Government, (b) the offences notified by the Central Government to be investigated by the NIA in association with the State or transferred back to the State Government for investigation and (c) the scheduled offences under the Act investigated by the State government,” it explained. .It added that there is no doubt that the designated court has exclusive jurisdiction over the offences investigated by the NIA. “The difficulty is posed by the other two category of cases mentioned above,” it noted.The accused and the State government argued that the scheduled offences not investigated by the NIA would be triable only under general mechanism of criminal law and not by NIA courts.It was further contended that law does not permit to burden the designated court with each and every scheduled offence under the NIA Act.However, the Court did not agree with the submission and referred to Section 22 of the NIA Act which empowers the State government equally to notify a designated Court under the enactment. .In this backdrop, the Court looked at the NIA Courts and their pendency in Uttar Pradesh.It found that only a single court had been designated in the State with the largest population for so many cases notified by the Central or State government. .“The position discussed above makes it evident that the Central Government and State Government both have notified the Special Courts. Besides the above, a Court of Judicial Magistrate is also stated to be functional for the purpose of trying the scheduled offences within its jurisdiction. The position as to the notification of Special Courts may be reconsidered by the State Government so as to streamline the process of justice strictly in accordance with the Act and the underlined objects therein,” it observed..It also observed that the State government is bound to appoint Public Prosecutors for the trials of scheduled offences by the Special Court.“We are informed that no such mechanism is in motion by the State Government to appoint Public Prosecutors to conduct the cases before the Special Courts which deserves to be considered by the State Government at the earliest, apart from ensuring prompt investigation in accordance with law,” it said..Advocate Nasreen Bano and Shyam Kinkar Pandey represented the appellant. [Read Order]